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Whisky Appreciation Thread

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Maker's 46 is a significant upgrade over regular Maker's for not much more money. 46 Cask Strength was great too but not sure if you can still find that one in the wild.

Woodford Double Oaked is another bottle I can second. Same with Rare Breed.

John J Bowman Single Barrel is one I'll always recommend. It's Buffalo Trace juice aged in Virginia for ten years.
 
Similar to DJTJ's posts about trying beer, I'm lost when it comes to trying and appreciating whiskey. I've never been a big fan, but I chalk a lot of that up to drinking cheap garbage in college. The strong whiskey taste just brings back rough memories.

Where would you guys recommend starting out for somebody looking to spend $35-$50 bottle, or something to try at a place like Lizardville? I have a bottle of Maker's Mark that I've slowly depleted over like 4 years. Whenever I rarely do try it I usually drink it neat, or on the rocks.

If you're in Cleveland and can find Weller Special Reserve ($25) or Angel's Envy ($40). They're both good for the price and at, or in AE's case, slightly below 45%. Everybody goes ape shit over stuff like Stagg Jr but I don't personally care for it. Anything over 110 proof is just too hot.
 
I'll get it from DC. No biggie.

I'm only seeing the 10 and 15 as readily available. The 12 is cask strength, whereas the other ones are normal, right?

Yeah, the 10 is 46% I believe? The 12 is batched, so the proof varies. Mine is 56.1%, which is from last year I think. It's also a limited release. I'd never seen it before this week.

I haven't had the 15 yet. I went to buy it recently but the two stores that usually carry it were out. I think that's when I bought Glenmorangie 18 instead.
 
Yeah, the 10 is 46% I believe? The 12 is batched, so the proof varies. Mine is 56.1%, which is from last year I think. It's also a limited release. I'd never seen it before this week.

I haven't had the 15 yet. I went to buy it recently but the two stores that usually carry it were out. I think that's when I bought Glenmorangie 18 instead.
Besides all your usual joints, this place isn't bad to check for hard-to-find things online: https://www.finedrams.com/springbank-15-year-old-whisky.html

Also I check out DC Wine and Spirits, and Astor's in NYC.

Any thoughts on Lagavulin 12 compared to the 16?
 
Besides all your usual joints, this place isn't bad to check for hard-to-find things online: https://www.finedrams.com/springbank-15-year-old-whisky.html

Also I check out DC Wine and Spirits, and Astor's in NYC.

Any thoughts on Lagavulin 12 compared to the 16?

I've actually ordered from Fine Drams before. Got Ledaig 18, which is the best bottle of Scotch I've ever had, from them. I think my other bottles were Lagavulin 16 and Laphraoig Lore. Might have been one more. Can't remember. Just killed that Lore off recently, though. It was good shit. The other two are long dead.

I've never had Lagavulin 12. I've only had the 16. Four or five bottles, but just the 16.
 
I've actually ordered from Fine Drams before. Got Ledaig 18, which is the best bottle of Scotch I've ever had, from them. I think my other bottles were Lagavulin 16 and Laphraoig Lore. Might have been one more. Can't remember. Just killed that Lore off recently, though. It was good shit. The other two are long dead.

I've never had Lagavulin 12. I've only had the 16. Four or five bottles, but just the 16.
I'm in the same boat.

I always have Lagavulin 16 on hand, have never tried the 12.

I also currently have a bottle of Lore on hand. It's fine. I like it. I feel like it has a bitter quality to it that normal laphroaig 10 and laphroaig 10 CS don't have. I like the bitter note, but it's off-putting to some people. It's almost medicinal.
 
I had to drive to a town about forty minutes away today, so I decided to take a slightly longer route that took me briefly into South Carolina by a store I like but don't hit up too often. My stop was rewarded, as they had the Glenmorangie limited release A Tale of Cake in stock at MSRP. I missed out on this last year when one of my regular stores sold out before I had a chance to get down there, so I'm glad I'll get a chance to try it now. It sounds really interesting. It's finished in Tokaji (a sweet dessert wine with Hungarian origins) casks.

Going to try it in a bit. I'll post some tasting notes later if I have time.

Also found a bottle of Four Roses Single Barrel Barrel Strength the other day, but haven't opened it yet because I might trade it to a friend of mine who has a lot of neat unopened bottles. I'm leaning toward keeping it, because nothing he's offering is that amazing outside of a few older Knob Creek store picks, but I kind of feel like I haven't given Four Roses much of a shot. As much bourbon as I've tried, I think I've only ever bought about four bottles from Four Roses, not counting occasional Yellow Label purchases in college.
 
I had to drive to a town about forty minutes away today, so I decided to take a slightly longer route that took me briefly into South Carolina by a store I like but don't hit up too often. My stop was rewarded, as they had the Glenmorangie limited release A Tale of Cake in stock at MSRP. I missed out on this last year when one of my regular stores sold out before I had a chance to get down there, so I'm glad I'll get a chance to try it now. It sounds really interesting. It's finished in Tokaji (a sweet dessert wine with Hungarian origins) casks.

Going to try it in a bit. I'll post some tasting notes later if I have time.

Also found a bottle of Four Roses Single Barrel Barrel Strength the other day, but haven't opened it yet because I might trade it to a friend of mine who has a lot of neat unopened bottles. I'm leaning toward keeping it, because nothing he's offering is that amazing outside of a few older Knob Creek store picks, but I kind of feel like I haven't given Four Roses much of a shot. As much bourbon as I've tried, I think I've only ever bought about four bottles from Four Roses, not counting occasional Yellow Label purchases in college.
Four Roses is extremely solid stuff. I think people get the wrong opinion about it because the yellow bottle is pretty cheap, but even the yellow bottle i enjoy over some of the really expensive shit ive had.
 
Four Roses is extremely solid stuff. I think people get the wrong opinion about it because the yellow bottle is pretty cheap, but even the yellow bottle i enjoy over some of the really expensive shit ive had.

Yellow Label is what it is. Watered down and cheap. Not saying it's bad, of course. It's meant to be watered down and cheap. At the price point, though, give me Evan Williams Bottled in Bond. Wild Turkey 101 is only a few bucks more and immensely superior as well. And Evan Williams Single Barrel is only a dollar more than WT101 where I'm at and is usually at least eight years old and rock solid.

I wasn't a huge fan of Four Roses Small Batch. Small Batch Select was really good, though. I've got mixed opinions on the two single barrels I've had. One was a regular single barrel, not barrel proof and not a store pick, and I was very underwhelmed. I've got a single barrel at barrel proof that is a store pick, though, and it's good. It's not my favorite bottle, and I think that's mostly due to the mint forward OBSF mash bill, but I recognize that it's a quality bottle of bourbon. The new bottle has a different mash bill that seems more appealing to me, which is why I want to try it.
 
Added two new bottles to my bar today that I'm really excited about.

I mentioned earlier on this page that I struck out trying to get Springbank 15 a few weeks ago. Turns out that was a good thing, because the store I got the Glenmorangie Tale of Cake bottle at also has Springbank 15 for quite a bit cheaper than the other two stores I know that carry it. They only had one bottle, and no idea if they'll get more (I suppose I'll request it next time I'm there), but it was thirty or forty bucks cheaper than I've seen it elsewhere, and not much more than I was paying for the 10, which they either don't carry or were out of when I was there. I went back there yesterday and picked up a bottle of the 15.

It was more or less what I expected. A better version of the 10. It hits a lot of the same notes and is the same proof, but it's juicier and more refined. I tried it last night and am looking forward to another pour.

Another store I frequent does a weekly boozeletter, and they advertised the second bottle in it yesterday. I didn't have time to get down there yesterday, but was off today so I had no issue with cruising down to South Carolina. The bottle in question is Laphroaig 10 Sherry Oak. This release was finished in oloroso sherry casks for a year to a year and a half. I've never had a bad bottle of Laphroaig, so looking forward to digging in to this one.
 

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